whoa...nice! lolz. i purchased a buce when they were relatively new to the hobby. 1 plant. 80 dollars. hahahahaha. i mean, sobsobsobsobsob.....

*UPDATE*
i received a stem of Hygrophila pinnatifida in the mail today. planted it in the back area of tank, between the Downoi and A. nana 'petite'. was hoping to add some sort of dark and vibrant texture to the tank. i know that H. pinnatifida grows relatively large, but it can be encouraged to be compact under high growth. hoping to see if it compliments the downoi and branches well. we shall see....

i've always been one for pushing the envelope, but this one might be a tad bit too much, even for me. hahahaha.

so tyttocharax......what to say....
they could definitely be a nano fish, but will need something like 5 gallons or higher. the largest of them is about 1" and .5" deep--and they are very VERY tight schoolers. some are deep bodied like lemon tetras while others are more streamlined like a neon tetra. i suspect this is a sexual dimorphism. very incorrigible fin nippers, especially amongst themselves, so large numbers may be necessary... feeding is entertaining...they enter some sort of swarm, piranha pack mentality, and will easily dominate more timid species...

i would like to remove them from the tank, but the tank wont let me do that (darn twigs). perhaps maybe when i do a water change soon. heh, maybe they might grow on me...some of them are starting to show some red coloration on the fins.

@lyzza: lolz. they're called Tyttocharax. these ones specifically have not received a species designation yet and are just known as T. ssp. blue line. i will probably be moving them to a bigger tank as their bioload is making a significant contribution to the tank (getting algae growing on the tank glass)

Nice tanks! I noticed you were from the Bay Area. Are you using SJ tap water by any chance for your tanks? I'm trying to grow UG and unfortunately growth has been stagnant for almost 2 months now. I suspect that it might be the hardness of the water. Got any helpful tips to share?

unfortunately, im not from SJ. im more peninsula, so i get the hetch hetchy water supply. stuff is sweet. UG seems to do much better when grown emersed. i strongly suggest growing it emersed first then flooding it. it does not like nitrogen enrichment, and doing so will melt your plants. CO2 supplimentation is great, but not necessary. High lighting is obligatory as it will prevent your plant from growing lanky and detaching from the substrate.
it prefers soft, acidic water to do well.

here's an in progress photo for those interested...will probably be a while before i upload another one, since growth is pretty slow. im horrible at capturing decent shots of my fish, so it'll be a while before i do that.

thanks a lot. i do appreciate it. despite it being a relatively low-maintenance tank, a lot of blood, sweat and tears went into this tank. quite a few broken sticks unfortunately, so the tank is not as intricate in detail in comparison to at first. that being said, i am really happy with it. probably my best work yet.

now i got to deal with the amanos....the amanos like to hide in the cave AND dig, which causes all of the soil hidden back there to fall out.

thanks a lot. i do appreciate it. despite it being a relatively low-maintenance tank, a lot of blood, sweat and tears went into this tank. quite a few broken sticks unfortunately, so the tank is not as intricate in detail in comparison to at first. that being said, i am really happy with it. probably my best work yet.

now i got to deal with the amanos....the amanos like to hide in the cave AND dig, which causes all of the soil hidden back there to fall out.

Yeah, sometimes I have found that the low maintenance tanks that are designed well end up looking the best of all. There's no maintenance in nature! That's what I love about your tank.. it looks like a slice of natural, untouched nature. Beautiful.

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